The Weeder's Digest

Yes, you read right. The Weeder's Digest. That's the subtitle of a little magazine know as: GreenPrints. Their website says: "Only GreenPrints magazine shares the human side: the joy, humor, frustrations, and heart in fine prose and fine art . . . It's the best personal garden writing, old and new . . . It's funny. It's tender. It's truthful, It's inspiring."

This little magazine found it's way to my home through my Mom's friend, Mary. Once again she sent over something to read that I'd never heard of before. It's a cute little magazine that comes out each season, and occasionally special magazines like The Weeder's Reader which is GreenPrints greatest stories.

The first article I read, My New Year's Garden, shares the heart's desire of the author to grow enthusiasm, harmony, patience, love, etc., instead of anger, resentment, frustration and judgment. It was a cute little story to remind us of what's important in our life.

I really laughed at My No-Grow Azaleas where Robert Christensen shared how his azalea hedge wasn't growing any bigger the third year. He asked people everywhere if they knew what he could do. Then, when he began digging them up after frying them with nitrogen, he found a metal identification tag that said: Dwarf White Azalea. It gave me my laugh for the day.

Of course, I enjoyed the article: A Grown-Up's Snow Day. I liked what Michelle Bobier said: "I like to watch my garden while it sleeps . . . annuals are simply dead . . . Perennials are about endurance, and they are about hope. They are the ones that see me through the winer."

A cute little rhyme by Rudyard Kipling showed up in an article: "Oh, Adam was a gardener, and God who made him sees; That half a proper gardener's work is done upon his knees. So when your work is finished, you can wash your hands and pray; For the glory of the garden, that it may not pass away."

I liked the title: To Be Happy, Play in the Dirt, of one of the articles. This was a scientific lesson by Alexandra Schiller that spoke about how the brain triggers serotonin, a hormone-like neurotransmitter that eases tension and elevates mood. When we dig in the earth, we release and breathe in action-packed hormones that enter our body, quicken our senses, and give us a feeling of bliss. I think I need to dig in the dirt more. To think, I could have overcome all those years of depression by digging in the dirt!

Dorothy Gilman said: "What continues to astonish me about a garden is that you can walk past it in a hurrt, see something wrong, stop to set it right, and emerge an hour or two later breathless, contented, and wondering what on earth happened."

Check out GreenPrints at www.greenprints.com. It's a cute litte magazine bound to give the gardener in you some laughs and lessons. It's a Mom and Pop operation out of Fairvew, North Carolina.

GreenPrints—like gardening—offers hope, joy, encouragement, peace, humor, beauty, friendship, and so much more. And who couldn’t use those things, now or anytime? It’s a much-cherished present—for yourself and your gardening friends and family!

Oh Deer

As many of you know, I love to photograph deer. I'm not sure what it is about them, but they bring me joy. July and August is when I purposely go out looking for fawn. Since I no longer drive to work, this season I've been going out early Saturday mornings, about 6 a.m., and driving those roads where I've seen deer. Sometimes I'm successful, and sometimes not.

The other week, on one of my favorite secluded roads, I found Mom and her twins. They let me snap for 3 minutes until they were no longer in my sight. Mom wasn't concerned about me and just moseyed while the twins were a little more cautious. The snap above and the three below are from that morning.

You can be assured I'll be going out again next Saturday!

Some of you may remember a few years ago in November I asked God to bring some buck my way so I could photograph them. I hadn't been successful in finding many buck, and I wanted to photograph them too! The very next summer was when our herd of buck started showing up in our backyard.

The below two snaps were taken that first summer looking into our neighbors yard. I enjoyed seeing the two young bucks taking a drink out of our neighbors bird bath.

This week God provided opportunity for me to snap our herd of buck again. I posted the first one on Facebook last week, but here are a few more that I like. Look at that rack!

This second one I snapped behind our wood pile. I had taken Sam out a little before 7 that evening. I looked down the lane and saw the herd making their way to our backyard. I ran back to the house, grabbed my glasses and camera, left Sam in and ran back down to the woodpile. They started coming around the corner just as I got there.

They didn't know I was there for about 30 seconds when a few of them realized something wasn't right. They stayed about 3 minutes until one of them snorted. They ran down to the corner and let me take some more snaps.Never been so close to get a snap like the one below!

The only thing about having our herd of buck is the doe arn't coming up, which in turn means, no fawn. But it's been a joy having these buck come up in the evenings from July through November. Occasionally we see them in the morning too.

One of my favorite snaps of fawn in our back yard is the first time Mom brought her triplets up. I had Jerry take down the middle rail earlier so I could see the fawn better.

So . . . the beat goes on as I continue to snap deer. Who would have ever thought I'd have my own herd of buck when we started putting corn out back some 10 years ago. What a thrill!

"Thoughtful" Thoughts

Nine years ago my friend, Paula, gave me a journal for my birthday. I'd never kept a journal or diary (except as a young girl). After some thought I decided to turn it into my "Thoughtful Book", a book I'd fill with quotes and words I read that I enjoy and identified with. I'm now on my 8th "Thoughtful Book."

I thought I'd share some of my first entries as I began this new adventure . . .

Of course, at the very beginning of the book I had to put my candy to start things off right and a word from the Nestle Chocolatier: "Can't be alone with chocolate."

And a word from God to encourage my heart: "Thy God can do much more than thou canst ask."

A word on serenity . . . "The best things in life move slowly. They can hardly overtake one who is in a hurry. We are making haste to ill purpose if we haven't time to read good books, to think quietly, to visit our friends, to comfort the sick and sorrowing, to enjoy the beautiful creation of God, and to lend a hand to a struggling brother. Time is precious, but more precious than fleeting hours are truth, love, benevolence, friendship, service, a serene mind and a happy heart, for these are the essence of life itself." Gilbert Hay

A funny bit of advice . . . "If some bit of gossip come, file the thing away. If a scandalous, spicy crumb, file the thing away. If suspicion comes to you that your neighbor is not true, let me tell you what to do--file the thing away. Do this for a little while. Then go out and burn the file." Streams in the Desert 2 , Mrs. Charles Cowman

The thought of a gentleman . . . "How wonderful, at evening, to be able to say, 'What a day! Lord, What a day! Because I could pray!'" P. J. Wolz

A word from Thomas Kincade about "living in the light of the lovely." . . . "Simply put, beauty is found in anything that delights the senses, nourishes the soul, fires the imagination."

A word from Dorothy Kelley Patterson from her book "Beatitudes for Women." "Scripture makes it clear that every person has a reason for his or her existence . . . If contentment is the ultimate goal, you should negotiate with the cows to take over their pastures. Their contentment with grazing in a grassy meadow seems to overshawdow the satisfaction of most beings with their life situations."

A word for the perfectionist . . . "A healthy perspective on household chores includes determining your maximum acceptable dirt level." Unknown

A word from Eeyore . . . "A little consideration, a little thought for others, makes all the difference."

For the writer . . . "I have only made this [letter] longer because I have not had the time to make it shorter." Blaise Pascal

A word of thought from George MacDonald: "Few are needed to do the out-of-the-way tasks which startle the world, and one may be most useful just doing common place duties, and leaving the issue with God. And when it is all over, and our feet will run no more, and our hands are helpless, and we have scarcely strength to murmur a last prayer, then we shall see that, instead of needing a larger field, we have left untilled many corners of our single acre, and that none of it is fit for our Master's eye were it not for the softening shadow of the cross."

And to close this post my opinion of snow as said by Dennis the Menace, " ... and when you decided to make snow ... that was a REALLY COOL idea!

God's Amazing Creation

Last week my friend, Shari, brought me a chrysalis in a small cage. She said it would take about a week before it changed into a butterfly.  We put it up on the side of the butterfly house in my garden, taking some snaps that first day.

The next morning, while leaving to go out, I looked over and there was a butterfly! It had changed overnight. I was looking forward to getting some pictures along the way, but it had other ideas.

I never saw this transformation as a child, and I am delighted I saw it now. If Shari finds another chrysalis in her yard, she's going to bring it to me.

Most of us have read about the transformation one receives when they call to Christ and their soul is saved comparing it to a butterfly. I'm so glad I got to witness this example in God's creation!

 My gardens are coming along well with all the rain we've been having. I sit out there most mornings and enjoy the quiet time with God.

I've been out a few mornings driving the old roads looking for fawn. I haven't seen many and couldn't get snaps of the ones I did see. I miss driving early morning and seeing the start of a new day. I'll keep going out early Saturday mornings, when there's no traffic, to find fawn, as much to enjoy the quiet and stillness of the day as to seeing fawn!

I Took a Walk

I just finished reading three books, back-to-back, that I never would have read. My Mom's friend, Mary, sent over the books for me to read. I didn't want to read them. I'd never heard the author's name. I figured I'd start the first one and skim through it, then Mom could take them back to her.

I couldn't put the books down. They were fast reading and captured my attention. The author is Richard Paul Evans, and the books are "The Walk Series: The Walk, Miles to Go and The Road to Grace."

I checked out his website, and he's a New York Times best selling author. I don't recall ever seeing his name, but he's certainly a high profile author. Evans has won the American Mothers book award, two first place Storytelling World awards, The Romantic Times Best Women’s Novel of the Year Award, the German Leserpreis Gold Award for Romance, and the Religion Communicator’s Council’s Wilbur Award. Four of Evans’s books have been produced as television movies.

He weaves a good story. The Walk is about a man who walks from Seattle to Key West after losing everything--his wife dies, his business is stolen from him, his house is repossesed and his cars are repossessed. The inside sleeve says . . . "A life-changing journey, both physical and spiritual, the first of an unforgettable series of books about one man's search for hope. These novels are fiction.

There's also a book titled: The Quotable Evans, available as a downloadable e-book. You know how much I love a good quote! The "diary entries" as he calls them are taken from all of the books he has written. They've become a trademark of his writings.

The fourth book in the series was released in May of this year: "A Step of Faith." I just picked it up. Can't wait to start it!

I certainly was wrong in my opinion of the books Mary sent over for me to read. And I'm ever so thankful that I took the time to begin the first book. I've enjoyed walking across the country with him.

The Christmas Box is the first book he wrote. I think I'm going to have to step into his world and read a few more. And now to download those diary entries!